The key to making tasty falafel is to use dried chickpeas (my first batch was made with cooked chickpeas; the texture was awful), soak the chickpeas at least 24 hours (I only soaked the chickpeas overnight for my second batch; everything about the falafel was wrong), and purée the soaked chickpeas until very smooth (in my third batch, the ground chickpeas were the size of dried couscous; these fell apart in the hot oil).